Crisis of Conscience
by Chevron7Lock
Summary: Major Emma Cooper has second thoughts after the attack on the Replicators in 'First Strike'.


**A/N: There appears to be some confusion of what the first pilot of the Daedalus is actually called. I've gone with Emma Cooper, her first shown name, because I like that name better. She's the pilot of the ship when it appears in the Siege. I wrote this because I think although some ethical issues got really well covered on Stargate, some of the issues with destroying the Replicators – both in SG1 and SGA – were slightly glossed over. This is set after the start of SGA season 4.**

**Crisis of Conscience **

Major Emma Cooper sat on a sofa staring into space out of the window. _Well, not really into space, more into hyperspace, _she thought, as the familiar blue glow streamed passed the Daedalus forming infinite loops and swirls. Even here on the forward observation deck she could feel the familiar vibrations of the engines powering the ship onward towards the Milky Way. Only the more experienced crew members – herself included – could tell exactly how fast the ship was moving from the subtle changes in pitch and tone always audible onboard the ship. Most of the crew rotated – the science teams and Marines onboard were usually only deployed for a few months before being rotated back off the ship – but she was one of the permanent command staff.

Emma had returned to the Daedalus from a short stay on the Apollo, assisting them in their mission to wipe out the Replicators and their ships from orbit. The mission had initially been a success, but then the enemy hit back, almost destroying Atlantis in the process. The Daedalus had arrived shortly afterwards with the normal supply run, and now she was off duty while on the voyage home. Bouncing back and forward between ships made her feel a bit like the omnipresent Major Marks. _Colonel Carter once said that Marks defied the laws of physics, seeming to be on every 304 at the same time._ She smiled, thinking of the last bar crawl some of the 304 pilots went on last time all three ships were at home. Their secret hangers were quite close to both Area 51 and Las Vegas...

Her musings were interrupted by a hand being waved in front of her face, blocking the view. She started, and looked round to see the concerned face of Captain Dave Kleinman, her counterpart on the bridge.

"Ma'am...are you alright? " he asked.

"Yes... why do you ask?" Emma replied. The Captain had always seemed a bit eager to her – not that enthusiasm was a bad thing, but there was such a thing as overdoing it.

"Well Ma'am, you've been sat staring out of the window for the last ten minutes and you haven't moved, so I was just... checking you were okay?"

_Oh, he so has a crush on me, _she realised, taking in his pink tinged cheeks and awkward manner as he petered out. _Well, might as well humour him._

"I was just thinking about the mission to wipe out the Replicators, actually. I'm beginning to have doubts about whether it was the right thing to do." she responded, gesturing him to sit down.

"Why... you think they'll be unaffected by the attack...Ma'am?" he hastily added as he sat on the sofa next to her.

"No, I actually think that they might really have been damaged. I know that they say you can't kill Replicators because they're not alive to start with, just machines... but I don't think I'd like it if somebody nuked Earth and killed millions."

"I suppose. Do you think any of them ever individually die, or can their personalities just be redownloaded into another body if they're destroyed?" he replied.

"I don't know. It wasn't so bad when we destroyed the Milky Way Replicators – they were trying to take over the galaxy. Still, it was genocide..." she was interrupted by a loud exclamation from the Captain.

"We acted in self-defence when we used the Dakara superweapon – we wouldn't be having this conversation if we'd not used it – and they were just machines, anyway!"

"Just because something doesn't look human, doesn't mean it's not intelligent. Remember the Wraith computer virus we had on our second trip out to Pegasus? That was intelligent, it adapted to what we did," she replied.

Kleinman sat back and sighed. Emma carried on, realising she had wanted to get this out of her system since she had pushed the button to launch the Horizon weapon to destroy the Replicators.

"I mean, what gives us the right to go around wiping out whoever we choose, or blow up entire solar systems?"

At this, Kleinman sat forward, confident in his answer.

"Because we're the good guys."

There was a pause. Emma lifted an eyebrow in incredulity.

"I mean, we try to help people. We give disaster support, medical help, engineering assistance... We defeated the Goa'uld and the Replicators in the Milky Way, remember? We try to do the right thing. That's what gives us the responsibility, not the right," he carried on.

There was a longer pause, and Emma looked back at the window for a few seconds at the unending blue tunnel. _I guess he's right in a sense._ She stood up, feeling a little more confident than she had done before.

"Well, thank you for lending an ear, Captain, but I'm due on the bridge for my shift. So if you'll excuse me..."

"Any time, Ma'am, any time," he stuttered, his nervousness returning now she was leaving.

"I'll see you around..." she shot over her shoulder as she stepped out of the observation deck and back into the grey monotonous corridors of the ship, ready to find her way back through the maze to the bridge. She felt a little more confident about doing the job she knew she loved anyway, putting a slight spring in her step and a smile on her face as she walked into the lift.

_He is sweet in a way._

_Whoa, where did that come from..._

**A/N:****Hmmm... something to continue, perhaps?**_  
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End file.
